TDEE explanation of weird phenomenon!?

Nikion901

Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.

I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.

MegaMooseEsq

Nikion901 wrote: »

Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.

I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.

I suspect the 3500 is another one of those estimates that can vary quite a bit depending on diet and other factors. I’ve found it to be generally on the nose for me, but I assume it won’t work for everyone. I also have the advantage of fairly predictable water weight movements which helped clear up the numbers.

jemhh

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Nikion901 wrote: »

Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.

I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.

I suspect the 3500 is another one of those estimates that can vary quite a bit depending on diet and other factors. I’ve found it to be generally on the nose for me, but I assume it won’t work for everyone. I also have the advantage of fairly predictable water weight movements which helped clear up the numbers.

3500 is a rounded estimate of how much energy is in a pound of fat. When you lose weight, you lose both fat and lean mass (which includes everything other than fat.) Lyle Mcdonald has a good article that breaks this down. An excerpt:

So consider the situation where someone is getting 10% of the energy deficit from LBM and the other 90% from stored fat. They have created a 3,500 calorie weekly deficit. 10% or 350 calories comes from LBM/protein which has 600 calories/pound. That’s just under one half of pound of weight lost. The remaining 3150 calories will come from fat (about 0.9 lbs of fat). So the total weekly weight loss will be about 1.4 lbs (0.5 lbs LBM plus 0.9 lbs of fat).

Full article: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/3500-calorie-rule.html/

MegaMooseEsq

jemhh wrote: »

MegaMooseEsq wrote: »

Nikion901 wrote: »

Despite all the ideas others have posted ... just to put in my 2 cents ... I've never been able to back into what my TDEE is by doing the math of pounds x n for fat per pound. While it's true that 1 pound of pure is about 3500 kilojoules(sp?) of energy (calories) it doesn't work out math wise in a living human body.

I think that's because it's not just the total calories we eat, but also how our bodies respond to specific components of the food we eat. I'm not at all qualified to speak on this from a scientific, medical, nutritional professional basis ... but from close observation of how different eating patterns/habits affect my short term response to food. This includes how quickly my digestion responds, to how much access fluid I'm storing, to how fit-flab-turgid-soft my belly feels. All these short term effects on my weight can make it appear as if, when I try to back into what my TDEE was, that I am a scientific anomaly.

I suspect the 3500 is another one of those estimates that can vary quite a bit depending on diet and other factors. I’ve found it to be generally on the nose for me, but I assume it won’t work for everyone. I also have the advantage of fairly predictable water weight movements which helped clear up the numbers.

3500 is a rounded estimate of how much energy is in a pound of fat. When you lose weight, you lose both fat and lean mass (which includes everything other than fat.) Lyle Mcdonald has a good article that breaks this down. An excerpt:

So consider the situation where someone is getting 10% of the energy deficit from LBM and the other 90% from stored fat. They have created a 3,500 calorie weekly deficit. 10% or 350 calories comes from LBM/protein which has 600 calories/pound. That’s just under one half of pound of weight lost. The remaining 3150 calories will come from fat (about 0.9 lbs of fat). So the total weekly weight loss will be about 1.4 lbs (0.5 lbs LBM plus 0.9 lbs of fat).

Full article: https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/3500-calorie-rule.html/

Science, woo! Thanks for the link.